


Song's Interlude

by unwrittengold



Series: The Soul Song Saga [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:35:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24143713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwrittengold/pseuds/unwrittengold
Summary: Thousands of years in the future, Jack finally hears the Song and learns what he needs to do in order to save what he once held most dear. All he has to do is complete one simple deed and give up his most important possession. If he does, things will be fixed not only in his current time… but in the past as well.Sequel to Soul Song
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: The Soul Song Saga [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1476317
Comments: 26
Kudos: 56





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> -pokes head out after disappearing off the face of the Earth for six months...- Better late than never, right???
> 
> I'm so sorry this took me forever to get up, I'll just say life got a bit crazy for awhile, and everything put a dampener on my writing mood, but I never once gave up on finishing this saga through to the end, and I'm back at it now! I feel like I'm a bit rusty with the characters after so long, so I hope you'll forgive me if anything seems off. Hope you enjoy the continuation!

Even though he’d been alive for a few thousands of years by this point, walking into a theater that looked like one from old 20th century Earth never stopped impressing Captain Jack Harkness. His eyes took in the beautifully carved wood that wound its way around the outside of the stage, as if the wood was encasing it gently in ivy. 

Shame it wasn’t real and was only depicted that way with technology. It was handy to make the theater look like anything that would best fit the production, and it wasn’t hard to pretend it _was_ real because of how well it portrayed the setting, but Jack still wished it wasn't fake. Even though he hadn’t been back to Earth for quite some time, there were still some simple things he missed about it.

“Thank you for accompanying me, Jack,” the golden-skinned woman who currently had her arm latched around his own said with a warm smile, a lavish gown covering her humanoid body. “It’s always more fun going to these events with a friend, don’t you think?”

“Of course, Lady Drake,” Jack said with an answering smile, patting her arm with his free hand as he escorted her to their seats, wearing a traditional black tie outfit himself. “An Old Earth style production, a story about a doctor, and your company? How could I resist?”

Lady Drake laughed and shook her head slightly in amusement. “Always such a charmer, Jack. You never fail to know how to make someone feel special.”

“I aim to please,” Jack replied with another wide grin. “So what is this we’re seeing again? The Doctor and the Technician?”

“Yes,” Lady Drake confirmed with a nod. “It’s one of the many compositions by the great composer Liriyan.”

“Hmmm…” Jack trailed off in a thoughtful hum. “Every time I hear that name, I swear I’ve heard it before somewhere… Must be because they’re so popular,” he decided with a little shrug.

“Oh, they are. Their works are absolutely lovely. Full of drama and romance with bittersweet endings. Why, I dare say I’ve seen everything they’ve composed at least twice by now, and I’m sure they have well over forty compositions!” Lady Drake exclaimed excitedly.

“Sounds like you’re a big fan,” Jack teased with a good-natured laugh. “Well, I trust in your good taste – you invited _me_ here, after all – so I’m looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything by this Liriyan person. What species are they?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, no one knows that,” Lady Drake said, her tone implying that Jack really should have known that already based on how popular Liriyan was. “Liriyan is a very secretive being. I don’t think anyone knows anything about them at all besides what their name is and that they always have their settings take place during the 21st century on Earth.”

“Hmmm…” Jack looked thoughtful again, wondering if maybe Liriyan was the Doctor being incognito. It was the big reason why he’d jumped at attending this production with Lady Drake, curious if he might find out anything new about the Doctor. And if it didn’t have anything to do with the Doctor, well, Jack hoped it would at least be a pleasant performance to listen to. He hadn’t been lying about enjoying Lady Drake’s company either. They’d certainly had a few interesting adventures together previously.

Finding their seats, Jack helped Lady Drake get situated before sitting down himself, and the two of them made lighthearted bantering conversation until the production began.

Jack watched the beginning unfold with interest, a little bit disappointed when it turned out the doctor was actually just a doctor. The character was portrayed by a male humanoid who lost his fiancee to a brain cancer… At least, that’s what everyone thought, until it turned out to be a parasitic alien using his love’s body as a host instead. Something niggled in the back of Jack’s memory at that, making him frown. What about that was so familiar…? He didn’t think about it too much, though, focusing on the story that unfolded before him.

But the more the story unfolded, the more Jack swore it was familiar to him. The doctor traveled to a land referred to the Land of Burnt Trees in order to find solace and to try to prevent what had happened to his love from happening to anyone else. It was there that he met the technician character, portrayed by a humanoid woman. The doctor became cynical, and even though it was obvious to the audience that the technician was slowly falling for the doctor, the doctor always brushed her off, losing himself in sex and drinking. There were other nondescript background characters that milled about in the Land of Burnt Trees, but the focus was always on the doctor and the technician characters. 

It wasn’t until near the end of the production that realization slammed into Jack so hard, it felt like he couldn’t breathe for a few good solid moments. The technician had been stabbed by an intruder who had snuck into the very well guarded Land of Burnt Trees, and the doctor didn’t even realize it, speaking to her through a communicator as he tried to stop an imminent explosion elsewhere that the same intruder had set up. The doctor contained the explosion, but at the cost of his own life, confessing his feelings for the technician just before his demise.

Lady Drake was sniffling and dabbing at her teary eyes with a handkerchief at this point, but Jack was barely aware of anything going on around him. The technician lamented about being unable to save the doctor, but she succumbed to her wound and followed him into death not long after. The people of the Land of Burnt Trees held a small funeral for them, the last scene being a eulogy about how they were finally united.

When the curtain fell, Lady Drake and many others rose to their feet, applauding wildly and shouting words of praise, until the production was being giving a standing ovation.

Only Jack didn’t stand up. Wiping away at her tears again, Lady Drake looked down at him with a shaky smile, opening her mouth to speak but freezing when she saw him. “Jack?” she asked in concern, immediately sitting back down and reaching out to place a hand over his own. “Jack, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”

Jack’s eyes were open wide, and he was breathing hard, even noticeably sweating from the emotions running through him. He’d buried the memory away for so long because it was too painful to think about, but… but he knew this story. He’d been _there_ for this story. “Owen… Tosh…” he murmured shakily.

“What? Jack, I don’t understand… Do you need me to get medical assistance?” Lady Drake pressed worriedly.

Jack whipped his head around to stare at Lady Drake, a wild, frantic look in his eyes. “How do they know this? How the _hell_ did Liriyan know about this?!”

“Jack, please,” Lady Drake pleaded. “To be quite honest, you’re frightening me very much right now…”

“There’s got to be information on them somewhere!” Jack insisted.

“About Liriyan? I’m sorry, Jack, but I swear, I’ve told you all I know about them. I’ve tried to look up information about them myself many a time, and there’s just… nothing besides their name,” Lady Drake said apologetically.

“What other things have they written?” Jack barged on, wondering if there might be some clue as to what their origins were in some of the other things they’d composed. “Do they all take place in this Land of Burnt Trees setting?”

He’d heard that before. _Where_ had he heard that before? He’d put together that it stood for Torchwood, but that specific wording, the Land of Burnt Trees, he _knew_ he’d heard that before today.

“Y-yes,” Lady Drake confirmed, absolutely bewildered by Jack’s behavior but trying to placate him nonetheless. “Their most famous composition is called the Song of Yanojo…”

And once again, Jack felt like the breath had been punched right out of his lungs. The Song of Yanojo. Liriyan. The Audimus. Torchwood. Owen. Tosh. Gwen. _Ianto._

Everyone else, he’d shoved into the back of his mind as best he could, buried the memories so deep because it hurt to remember them. But Ianto… He’d never been able to bury Ianto. He’d never wanted to, no matter how much it pained him to remember. Every time he smelled coffee. Every time he saw a stopwatch. Every time he saw someone dressed up in a 20th century Earth style suit. Little things every now and again reminded him of Ianto, kept his memory alive. It’d been over 2,200 years since the man had died, but Jack had kept his promise to Ianto, to never forget him even in a thousand years time.

If the Doctor and the Technician was about Owen and Tosh, then maybe…

“The Song of Yanojo. What’s it about?” Jack demanded to know.

“I… Right now?” Lady Drake looked around at the other audience members slowly trickling out before looking back at Jack, confusion still evident on her face. “I’d be happy to talk about it at length or even show you the personal copy I own, but perhaps we should –”

“ _Please,_ ” Jack pleaded in desperation. “Please just… tell me.”

“W-Well, it’s about Yanojo and their love, Jaharis…”

“Does he… Does he die saving this Jaharis character?” Jack asked, voice cracking on the word ‘die,’ kicking himself for not having put together so so long ago the similarities between the names. Yanojo and Ianto Jones. Jaharis and Jack Harkness. It’d been right in front of him, and he’d brushed it aside. If he’d paid more attention, then maybe he could have done something somehow to prevent –

“That’s what Jaharis thinks at first,” Lady Drake said, abruptly cutting off Jack’s inward spiral and making everything _stop._

Jack stared at her, that wild look in his eyes changing ever so slightly as disbelief slipped in alongside it, his heart feeling like it was going to pound out of his chest.

“… What do you mean, ‘thinks at first’?” he said slowly.

“That’s why the Song of Yanojo is Liriyan’s most popular composition. It ends on a mysterious but hopeful note,” Lady Drake explained. “The epilogue of the story is a message Liriyan writes on behalf of Yanojo, almost as if Yanojo and Jaharis actually really existed. Many people have written articles and books wondering if they were real people and if Jaharis ever –” she went on, getting a bit carried away in her excitement of talking about possible theories, but Jack once again cut her off.

“What message? _What is the message?_ ” Jack pushed, grabbing onto the hand she had placed over his own and squeezing it tightly, noticeably shaking and resisting the urge to foolishly hope. It’d been thousands of years… There was no way that… He’d only be bringing himself more pain, he was sure of it, but… he _had_ to know.

Lady Drake blinked in bemusement at the passion Jack had been showing about all this ever since the production had ended. “That… That Yanojo is still alive, in a way. They’re waiting in a… Well, it doesn’t really explain where and there’s many theories about that too, but they’re in some place of suspended limbo, not dead but not alive either, waiting for Jaharis to find them and free them, no matter how much time has passed by… Jack, are you _quite_ sure you’re alright? You look like you’re, well, like you’re having some sort of respiratory attack?” 

Jack was indeed breathing shakily, drawing air into his lungs in raspy shudders. He felt lightheaded, heart still racing, as he let the news sink in. Alive. After all this time, Ianto could be… He could be… _alive?_ Jack could… still save him?

“What else?” Jack forced out, still holding onto Lady Drake’s hand in a vice-like grip, like he needed something secure and stable to hold onto or else he might break apart. “How is… How is Jaharis supposed to _find_ him?”

“The Child. The Child from the Land of Burnt Trees will show them the way,” Lady Drake explained, placing her free hand over Jack’s and squeezing it soothingly, not understanding what Jack was so upset about but still wanting to provide comfort.

“What does that mean? I don’t understand,” Jack pressed desperately.

Lady Drake closed her eyes, remembering word for word the message Yanojo left for Jaharis due to her love of Liriyan’s compositions. “ _Remember our time when we were together. Remember the door to it and to other times. Remember the key to opening that door. All you need to do is speak it, and the Child will hear you. They will come and lead you to me._ ” Opening her eyes, Lady Drake hesitated a moment before suggesting, “Some people aren’t sure if it’s an actual key that's being referred to or password of some sort between the two but… most everyone agrees that Jaharis will understand, even if there’s much debate about what the meaning of the message is.”

“The Rift,” Jack said abruptly.

“The… Rift?” Lady Drake questioned. “I’m not sure I follow?”

Jack looked around as if he somehow just… expected something to happen, and when nothing did, he closed his eyes, letting out a slow, deep breath and finally starting to calm down a little. “Nothing. It’s nothing. Just a… random thought I had.” He forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, pulling his hands away from Lady Drake and unsteadily getting to his feet. “I’m sorry about all that. Guess I just found myself getting caught up in the story way more than I thought I would.” He laughed, the sound coming out almost bitterly, as he held out a hand to help Lady Drake stand up. “Thank you for inviting me, but I’m suddenly feeling not my best. Rain check to catch up more later? Think I’m going to go back to my hotel room and rest for awhile.”

“Of course, Jack,” Lady Drake said sympathetically, letting Jack help her stand and reaching out to smooth his dinner jacket slightly. “Please get some rest, I’m really quite worried about you.”

Jack leaned forward to press a kiss to her cheek. “Thank you, and I’m sorry for being a bad escort.”

“Oh, nonsense,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I can get myself home just fine, and you know it. I didn’t earn all those sharpshooting trophies for nothing!”

“How could I forget when that’s how we met? You thought I was the target!” Jack said, finally letting out a small but genuine laugh of amusement.

“Well, you shouldn’t have been in the middle of the target area in the first place!” Lady Drake shot back with a pleased smile, glad to see that he had collected himself a bit. “You keep on saying it’s a long story how you got there, but you’ve never once explained how, you know.”

“I’ll tell you some other time,” Jack assured.

She gave him a skeptical look. “I’ve heard that before too.” But then her face shifted into a more sympathetic expression. “Go on and get some rest, Jack. I’ll just go catch up with some friends that I know are also here tonight.”

Jack gave her a bow of gratitude before excusing himself and quickly leaving, his mind already racing.

Ianto’s message… because it _had_ to be Ianto, right? That must be why this Liriyan person knew things Ianto did, because Ianto must have told them… Wracking his memory, Liriyan had been an Audimus, if he remembered right. Beings that came from the time vortex that were made of some kind of energy… He wasn’t sure how that was relevant to what he needed to do, though, so he focused on finding this Child of… of Torchwood first. 

Jack stayed quiet as he took a transport back to his hotel, waiting until he’d gotten back into the solitude of his room before he tried anything else again. He didn’t think guessing things out loud would be beneficial when done in the back of a taxi, and he didn’t want the driver to think he was crazy and throw him out.

The second Jack had shut the door behind him, he immediately tried guessing things again, having no clue how this Child of Torchwood was supposed to hear him, but… if it’s what Ianto said to do, then he’d do it.

“The Rift.”

Nothing.

“Rift?”

Nothing.

“Torchwood.”

Nothing.

“Cardiff. Wales. 21st century.” After each try, Jack’s frustration started to grow. “Oh, come on!” he yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. “That’s the time we were together! That’s the ‘door to time,’ isn’t it?! The Rift?! What else could it be?!”

When only silence greeted him, Jack growled in anger and ran his hands through his hair, beginning to pace back and forth. “Okay, think. _Think._ Something Ianto would know… The key to opening the door to time… The… Rift Manipulator?” He paused to see if anything happened, but there was nothing.

“Some kind of password, maybe…” he muttered frenetically, pulling up long buried memories at a pace that wasn’t fast enough for his liking now. “A key to the door to time… Something Ianto would know… Something… something only he and I would know…? What’s something only he and I would –”

Jack suddenly froze, a specific memory coming to him. The memories that had the most emotional impact on him were what he had been remembering first, and pain was a strong emotion. The pain of loss hurt so much… but so did the pain of betrayal. He could see his team standing there, about to open the Rift… needing the password to activate it... something he’d kept hidden, something Ianto knew, because he could see in his mind’s eye Ianto standing there, saying to the Gwen…

“Rhea Silva,” Jack breathed out, then held his breath, _praying_ …

For a second, nothing happened.

Then his vortex manipulator beeped.

Holding his wrist up so fast he almost hit himself in the face, Jack’s eyes widened as he read the words floating on the display in front of him.

_Hello, Captain. It’s about time. Stay where you are. I’ll be there in about 72 hours._

“Ianto?” Jack asked, the name having to be choked out.

He watched as a new message was typed out in front of him from somewhere, and his heart plummeted for a moment before it surged with true hope for the first time in a very long time.

_No._

_But I can take you to him._

****************************************************************************************************

70 hours, or three days later, and Jack was pacing back and forth in his hotel room. He’d changed into something more comfortable than a dinner suit, a shirt and trousers with braces, feeling nostalgic for old times and wanting to look familiar to Ianto if he could go see him right away as soon as whoever had sent him that message showed up. He wished he had his greatcoat, but after a couple thousand years, it had long since been destroyed by now.

Jack had tried talking to his vortex manipulator again to try and get some more answers out of the person, but he’d only ever received those two responses and nothing else since then. He swore there was going to be a permanent mark in the floor of the hotel room due to all of his pacing, and he really wished that the person would give him some idea of when they would show up. There’d been no answer, though, and he was on edge wondering if he might have imagined that short conversation.

Then, finally, there was a knock on the door.

If it was one of the hotel staff members again, Jack might just throw them out the window, having had false alarms twice already.

Rushing over and yanking the door open, Jack looked out to see… nobody.

Nobody at eye level, that is.

He looked down and came face to face with a human child who looked female and between the ages of ten and twelve. A surge of irritation swept through him, and he had a moment where he was tempted to tell her to go knock on another door before closing it in her face, but then he remembered… The Child of Torchwood…

“Hello, Captain,” the child greeted him stoically.

… So it seemed like the Child of Torchwood was an actual child. Huh. Go figure.

“ _You’re_ the one who sent that message?” Jack couldn’t help but ask incredulously.

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Yes. May I come into your room?”

Still in disbelief, Jack nonetheless wordlessly stepped to the side and held the door open so she could walk in.

“So… who _are_ you, exactly?” Jack pressed. “You’re not this Liriyan figure, are you?” He held up a hand to cut her off when she opened her mouth to answer, adding on, “But before all that, tell me how to get to Ianto.”

The girl smiled, like she was pleased with what he had said. “You haven’t forgotten him after all this time. Good.”

Jack let out a dry laugh that was half a scoff. “Forget Ianto Jones? Not possible.”

“Even though it’s been 2,200 years since his death?” she asked, sitting on the bed and looking at him scrutinizingly.

Jack paused for a moment, then took a few steps towards her almost threateningly. “That’s an interesting choice of words. Talking about his death, when you said you could take me to him earlier. You’re not playing me, are you?”

“I assure you, Captain, I am not,” she said sincerely, looking at him with a leveled gaze, her eyes somehow unnervingly familiar… “I can and I will take you to Ianto Jones. But please answer the question first.”

“No,” Jack answered flatly, crossing his arms and glaring at her. “I’ve never forgotten him. Now _tell me how to get to him._ ”

“That’s a bit complicated,” she confessed. “It will take some traveling time.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Jack demanded.

“We essentially need to go to a certain point in space at a certain point in time to be able to get to him. We can’t get there now. The way won’t be open for another…” She paused, tilting her head to the side and doing some quick thinking in her head. “Four days.”

Jack made a frustrated noise, throwing his hands up again and spinning around to start pacing again.

“You’ve waited over two thousand years, Captain,” the girl said dryly. “Four days is very short in comparison to that.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t _waiting while knowing I had a way to get to him then,_ ” he said tightly through gritted teeth.

The girl sighed. “Since we have time, to answer your first questions, no, I am not Liriyan. I named myself Bec.”

“You named yourself?” Jack asked a bit bemusedly, shooting a glance over his shoulder at her as he continued pacing. “Is Bec supposed to be short for something?”

“Yes. My identification says Rebecca Shield since that would be more acceptable for blending in with society, but Bec is short for Bio-Engineered Companion,” she explained without missing a beat.

That made Jack draw up short and turn to look at her incredulously again. “… _What?_ ”

“I am the Child of Torchwood,” she said as if she was talking to an impatient child.

“Yeah, I gathered that,” Jack stated dryly. “And that means…?”

“I _am_ Torchwood,” Bec went on, a hint of exasperation creeping into her tone. “Really, Captain… All that technology falling through the Rift from so many civilizations throughout time and space, an organic _living_ computer among them…”

Jack’s eyes slowly began to widen as realization started to sink in. “A Bio-Engineered Companion…” he murmured.

Bec smiled, pleased that he was finally getting it. “Yes, Captain. All that technology, all that time… and no one ever thought I would become smart enough to figure out how to grow a body for myself.”

As Jack stared at the walking and talking human version of the Hub’s organic computer, he only had one word to say.

“ _What._ ”


	2. Chapter Two

Within the four days they needed to wait, Jack finally watched the Song of Yanojo.

It took him multiple tries before he was able to watch it all the way through. The emotions it brought back were overwhelming, and he had to stop to compose himself more than a handful of times. 

It was all there, Ianto’s life at Torchwood laid out before him, just told in a more fantastical way with things altered here and there. It told of the good and the bad, like falling in love with Lisa and the horror of Canary Wharf. It told of him going to Cardiff, fighting his way into Jack’s good graces, of meeting Suzie, Owen, Tosh, and then Gwen. Even if their names weren’t the same in the composition, Jack knew who they were meant to really be. It told of the pain and the loss and the many sacrifices but also the moments of wonder when something happened with an alien encounter that didn’t end in anything bad occurring for once. 

It told of him falling in love with Jack, of their complicated relationship that eventually developed into something firm and solid on which to not only lean on for support during the hard times but also share in the joy of the good times. Watching and hearing those moments were the hardest ones for Jack to get through, understanding better than he ever had before how Ianto had felt about him, now that he was seeing and hearing it from Ianto’s perspective.

It told of Ianto’s death as well as the sacrifice of his soul to close the Rift after Syriath had recreated him, both moments that Jack couldn’t watch through without having to stop multiple times, feeling like his heart was getting ripped out all over again any time he got even close to those scenes. 

Then, at the end, there was the message meant for him alone, exactly as Lady Drake had quoted it to him – Ianto reaching out to him for help after all this time, believing that Jack would find him.

It was no surprise that Jack had tears coursing down his face when he finally finished the whole thing. He felt raw and wrung out, but he was also berating himself incessantly in his head. He should have known the Song was important. He even remembered talking about it with Ianto so long ago, having forgotten the conversation until the Song had brought it back to the forefront of his mind.

“Did you know there’s a song written about us?” Ianto had said. “That Song of Yanojo is apparently about you and me. Shame we can’t listen to it, given it hasn’t been created yet in this time. I’m curious about what it says.”

He even remembered one of the Audimus telling him they thought they had heard a snippet of the Song of Yanojo in his own lifesong. So many little things that seemed like small throwaway words at the time… If only he’d put them together, he might have been able to do something to save Ianto before his death. He still had the chance to save him now – pushing away any doubt that he couldn’t, not with everything he had learned recently – but Ianto had been waiting so long… If he’d just listened to the Song sooner…

But it wasn’t time for ‘what if’s’ any more, it was time to actually do something. It was the fourth day since Bec had showed up, and Jack forced himself to put himself together enough to the point where he could be functional again before he went in search of her, going into the bathroom to splash some water on his face from the basin first so he could be composed enough he could actually talk.

Jack wasn’t really sure what Bec thought of him, given how she’d hardly been around and didn’t really speak to him much, and whenever he tried to talk to her, her answers would be as short and concise as possible. She’d leave the hotel room during the day and come back only to sleep on the sofa. He wasn’t sure what she was doing the rest of the time, and when he questioned her, she just said she was making arrangements. He’d asked about transportation, wanting to make sure they had secured passage to get to where they needed to go, but Bec just waved him off and said she’d already taken care of it. 

What was more disconcerting was if he watched her long enough as she settled in for sleep, he was sure he caught a wary expression on her face more than once. The few times there was a knock on the door when room service came had her immediately sitting up straight on full alert and purposefully placing herself out of sight of the doorway. No matter how much he pushed about it, though, she would insist it was nothing for him to concern himself about and that she swore she would still take Jack to Ianto as soon as they were able to get to him.

She was definitely hiding something, but as long as she was able to get him to Ianto… And there was still definitely something about her eyes that he couldn’t quite place… That was getting a little frustrating for him too, trying to figure out why.

Stepping out of the bathroom, Jack found he didn’t need to go very far in search of Bec, because she was sitting on the sofa, staring at the bathroom door and already waiting for him to come out of it.

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Jack muttered under his breath as he walked over to stop in front of her. Crossing his arms, he looked at her expectantly. “Alright. It’s been four days. When are we leaving?”

Bec stood up and held out a hand. “I need your vortex manipulator.”

“What for? It hasn’t worked properly in a very long time, you know,” Jack pointed out while raising his eyebrows.

Bec only raised her eyebrows right back and repeated, “I need your vortex manipulator.”

“Again, what for?” Jack asked, a suspicious note creeping into his tone.

Bec rolled her eyes. “To get to where Ianto is. Instant transportation is much faster than securing passage aboard a ship.”

“… Did you actually make _any_ travel arrangements?” Jack questioned incredulously, removing the device with reluctance and handing it over.

“There weren’t any arrangements to be made. As soon as I fix this, we can get to Ianto,” she stated simply as she took the device.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. You mean to tell me you could have gotten it working this whole time? Why didn’t we just skip the four days?” Jack pressed in slight annoyance.

“You needed time to watch the Song,” Bec explained, looking at him in exasperation. “Now please be patient. It takes a moment for me to integrate.”

Jack made a noise of discontent, but held his hands up in a ‘whatever’ gesture before taking a step back and waiting.

He watched as Bec just stood there for a few long moments in silence, her hand closed around the device, and he was about to ask if anything was supposed to happen when he started to pick up on the light.

At first, it was subtle enough Jack thought it might have been some sort of optical illusion. But no, Bec’s hand… actually started glowing blue. It was very faint to begin with, but it grew brighter and brighter until what looked like tendrils of energy slowly grew out of her hand and attached to the vortex manipulator. Eyes widening in amazement, it took Jack a moment to place where he’d seen something like that before.

It looked like the swirling blue background of the old Hub computers.

“Huh,” he noted with interest, continuing to watch curiously. 

It didn’t take much longer, less than half a minute at the most, before the tendrils started to shrink back into her hand as the light dissipated. Bec opened her eyes, and he saw that they were glowing with the same soft blue light too, although it faded away as she held the vortex manipulator out to him. “There. I input the coordinates, so you just need to activate it.”

Thinking about how the wait was finally over as he looked at her eyes again, it finally hit Jack. Those eyes, that specific color…

He’d bring it up in a moment. Right then and there, the urge to get to Ianto after waiting for so long won out. He offered an arm for Bec to hold onto, and she took it easily, looking at him with a committed expression and giving a little nod, as if to reassure him they really were going to get to Ianto now.

Even though it might have been a trap leading to his death, Jack activate the vortex manipulator without another second of hesitation, adding in one thing with certainty just before they teleported. “You have Ianto’s eyes.”

They disappeared from the hotel room and reappeared… somewhere very remote. The air was obviously breathable because Jack nor Bec curled over gasping from the lack of it or toxins in it. Jack idly wondered if Bec even needed to breath as he surveyed their surroundings.

It was a rocky terrain of dark gray, and they appeared to be standing on some sort of hillside. All around them were rocks of various sizes, some bigger than Jack himself. There was a partially eclipsed sun in the distance, and the air felt warm and dry. “… Please tell me Ianto hasn’t been _here_ for all this time,” he said, almost sure that that wasn’t the case but afraid it might be true nonetheless. The place looked like a barren wasteland with nothing to sustain any sort of life as far as the eye could see.

“No,” Bec assured. “This is just where the doorway will appear.”

“Doorway?” Jack questioned.

“Just wait. It’ll only be a few minutes or so before it will open,” Bec explained. “As for what you said a moment ago… I was wondering if you would ever notice,” she said almost idly.

“Well, if you had stayed put in one place for longer than a second, I probably would have put it together sooner,” he stated, raising his eyebrows at her. “Just one question, and I’m sure it’s pretty obvious what it is.”

“Why?” Bec guessed, to which Jack nodded and looked at her expectantly.

“When I wanted to make a body, I used DNA from the two people I most respected,” she explained. “Ianto Jones and Toshiko Sato.”

Studying her again, Jack found he was able to pick up on the traces of Asian heritage in her features. “Wait, so does that mean you… You’re Ianto and Toshiko’s _kid_?” he asked incredulously.

Bec fixed him with an exasperated expression. “No, Captain. I grew myself in a pod. I simply used their DNA to make a body.”

“But why both of them?” Jack questioned. “I _know_ the technology exists in this time period to make a body from a single person.”

“It’s as I said,” Bec explained, placing a hand over her chest to feel the rise and fall of her breathing, expression growing solemn. “Ianto… He was always the one who took care of all the dirty work, keeping my home – _our_ home – clean and organized. He did it for so long without complaint, and he continued doing it even after what happened with Lisa. And Toshiko… She would talk to me. She understood me the best out of anyone who came before. She knew that I was, in some way, alive. No one treated our home or myself the same way that they did. That’s why I’m doing this.”

She looked up at Jack seriously. “I want to make sure you understand, Captain. I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this because you are the one Ianto loves, and because I need your help to save him, to _truly_ save him. I’ve only had this body for 70 years, but I’ve been in contact with Ianto whenever I could since I created it. I’ve had my own plan for awhile now to save him, in a way, but it wouldn’t…” She trailed off before starting again. “ _He_ wouldn’t be the same as he once was. He… _isn’t_ the same as he once was,” she admitted reluctantly. “But with your help, we can fix that. I brought you here so you could hear it from Ianto himself that there’s still a way to truly save him.”

“Okay, wait; excuse me?! 70 years?! You’ve known about this for that long?! Why the hell didn’t you contact me sooner?!” Jack demanded, frustration growing.

“I had to make sure you still felt the same way he feels about you. I had to make sure you still loved him enough that you remembered him, even after all this time,” she explained patiently. “My plan to truly save him… It all rests on that – your love for each other. Your willingness to give anything to save the other.”

“So… so, what, was this whole Song thing actually some sort of sick test?!” Jack said accusingly. “The Song was written 70 years ago. That’s when you said you started talking to him. Were _you_ the one who actually wrote it?!”

“Ianto will be able to explain,” Bec assured him, lifting her hands up in a placating gesture. “You will understand better soon, Captain; I swear on his life.”

Clenching his hands into fists, Jack resisted both the urge to demand she tell him now and the urge to punch a rock. “If he’s not here within five minutes, _you’re_ explaining,” he said with a low growl, jabbing a finger in the air at her.

Just then, his vortex manipulator started beeping, and he bent his arm to look at it with a frown. “What did you do to it? It hardly ever beeps.”

Bec started to actually smile, turning to look at the hillside with anticipation. “I added an alert system set to go off if two specific conditions are happening at the same time,” she explained, a hint of excitement in her tone. “One, if there’s a time fissure appearing nearby, and two, if there’s a large energy spike happening at that time fissure, larger than what would be there with just the time fissure alone.”

“And that’s the doorway you were talking about?” Jack asked, scanning all around him for any sort of opening to appear.

“The doorway,” Bec confirmed, grinning widely now, “and Ianto coming through it.”

She lifted a finger and pointed at where a soft orange-colored light was gathering, growing bigger and bigger until it widened enough a person could step through.

Had his heart not been pounding and his emotions racing, Jack might have made a quip about how it was just like old times, watching a small rift in time and space appearing. His breath caught in his throat, and he strained desperately to see any sort of figure come through, praying with everything he had that it was all true and not some sort of trick, that _he_ would really be there…

A figure did come through, but it wasn’t human. It was, however, still familiar, something Jack had seen a very long time ago. It was a being that looked like it was made of a somewhat transparent glowing matter, almost cloud-like with a plethora of colors rippling throughout it. The form stretched out into a humanoid-looking one, and Jack dimly recalled that the other times he had seen this particular species in their true forms, the ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ looked more like wings or fins than anything else with the ‘legs’ being one single fin-like shape. This time, however, the limbs looked more humanoid with two defined legs instead of the fin.

“You’re… an Audimus,” Jack recalled, glancing at Bec quizzically before he returned his attention to it. “Where’s Ianto…?”

The Audimus stayed still for a long moment, and Jack got the strangest sense it was trying to puzzle him out. 

Bec stayed silent at his side, looking at the Audimus like she was holding her breath with a hopeful expression as they waited.

Then Jack felt a surging burst of elation from the alien, getting the feeling he’d just been recognized by it.

It stretched out its hand towards Jack, and he returned the gesture, remembering the Audimus needed to use someone as a host body to verbally communicate and trying to convey his consent.

Once the Audimus felt his consent, it disappeared into him.

For a moment, there was a feeling of disorientation.

Then he heard a voice he hadn’t heard in a very, very long time.

 _Jack,_ the voice said, full of utter relief and fondness.

He _knew_ that voice.

Feeling like he had been punched in the gut, Jack let out a choked sob of shock, one arm curling around his waist and gripping so tightly onto his coat his knuckles turned white. _Ianto?!_

 _Yes, Jack,_ Ianto’s voice said tenderly. _You found us. You found me._

 _I’m so sorry,_ Jack immediately apologized, heart feeling like it was going to pound out of his chest. _I’m so sorry I didn’t find you sooner, I didn’t know, I –_

Ianto cut him off with a gentle shushing noise. _It’s alright. You’re here now. I always believed you’d find me eventually,_ he soothed. _That’s why I used Bec as a host to write the Song, to lead you to me._

 _Where… Where are you? Are you talking through the Audimus? I can’t see you,_ Jack asked desperately, turning around in a circle in the hopes Ianto might be standing somewhere nearby.

 _Jack..._ Ianto said solemnly, and Jack hated the way it sounded, making his heart seize up in concern. _My physical form is long gone. Lirithael has kept me alive by making us one. They are a part of me, and I am a part of them._

 _No..._ , Jack said slowly in disbelief as a creeping horror filled him. _No, that can’t be. The message… I thought it meant I can still save you!_

 _But I’m here,_ Ianto said, sounding slightly puzzled. _You did. I’m with you again._

“No!” Jack insisted, finding himself talking out loud now as he reached his hands up to grip tightly into his hair. “No, this isn’t – you _can’t_ – I –” Whirling, he turned to face Bec angrily. “You! This is… This is _wrong_ , this _isn’t him!_ ”

“I said he was different now,” Bec said, her tone calm but sorrowful.

“ _No!_ ” Jack shouted. “You said I could save him!”

 _Jack?_ Ianto asked, concerned now. _You aren’t happy to be with me again?_

Jack covered his mouth with his hand, letting out a choking noise that was half sob and half incredulous laugh as he found tears starting to slide down his face, the whiplash of being so happy to finally have Ianto back only to realize he wasn’t really, truly back being too much to handle. “Not… Not like this… I _can’t_ …” Feeling all of his energy leave him, he collapsed down to his knees. “Not like _this_ …”

 _I’m sorry,_ Ianto said, and it just felt more like a knife twisting into Jack’s heart at the way he sounded genuinely apologetic about it. _This was the only way I could survive in the time vortex. It was the only way the part of me that is Lirithael could keep the part of me that is Ianto’s soul alive. I held on for as long as I could, but over time, we… started to merge together. But I still remember,_ he tried to assure. _I can’t remember what things felt like physically, but I remember feelings. I remember you telling me you loved me, and how I felt when you said that. It was the last thing anyone ever said to me, but it was the most important thing, and it’s what allowed me to hold on to any semblance of myself and sanity after all this time. The part of me that is Lirithael has helped keep the part of my mind that is Ianto in tact, but that memory, that feeling… That has helped me the most._

Jack let out a slightly crazed laugh. “So you’re saying you’ve been floating lost in an eternal oblivion all this time… God, Ianto… It was supposed to me.” Giving a shout of rage, Jack slammed his fist hard enough into the dirt he drew blood on his knuckles. “Damnit, _it was supposed to be me!_ ”

“Ianto,” Bec said gently, stretching out a hand towards Jack’s shoulder but stopping before she actually touched him. “Tell him about the time wind.”

“The what…?” Jack asked, sounding broken now.

 _Do you know what a time wind is, Jack?_ Ianto asked hesitatingly.

Jack had heard of them before, but he still said, “Tell me,” wanting to at least keep on hearing Ianto’s voice.

 _It’s… like a window into another time,_ Ianto explained. _They exist within the time vortex. If you get hit by one, you may see things from a different life, a different time… A different universe. I was hit by one that let the part of me that is Lirithael, just for a moment, see the span of all of time and space in another universe. That part of me was at the… the heart of a ship. No, it _was_ the heart of the ship. With our memories – Lirithael’s and Ianto’s – combined together, especially with the part of me that is Ianto having a photographic memory… We – _I_ – remember the most important things from that glimpse. I remember what needs to be done in order to get to that point. That’s also why I wrote the Song, to led you to me so we can make that happen... if you want it to._

“But… how does that help us right now?” Jack questioned despairingly. “You’re still… You don’t have a body. You’re not… the same Ianto I once knew.”

 _But I was separate in the other universe,_ Ianto pressed. _The part of me that is Ianto had my own body again. Lirithael and Ianto… We were no longer together. I know it was in the future from even now, the far, far future. I know we were traveling together on a ship that could fly through time and space. I was… I was the Ianto you once knew again. And what’s more than that, Jack… You and I were the same in that future. You weren’t a fixed point in time anymore. We had been together for a long time, a very long time. We were both not only ready to rest forever, but we were both able to do so._

“I was… able to die? For good? With you?” Jack asked, hardly daring to let himself hope for all that after going through what felt like getting his heart ripped out for the umpteenth time.

 _Yes,_ Ianto soothed. _It’s possible, Jack. We can have that, if you want it._

Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment to gather himself together, Jack lifted his tear-streaked face up, once again with no hesitation. “Tell me. Tell me what I need to do. If there’s even the _smallest_ chance… I don’t care what it takes. If I have to change time itself then I will.”

“Not change time, not exactly,” Bec assured, finally speaking up from next to him. She couldn’t have heard what Ianto was saying, but she’d been able to follow along enough based on what Jack had spoken aloud. “Not enough to break it. Certain things still need to come to pass. But…” The child smiled softly and encouragingly, moving to stand in front of him so she could hold a hand out to Jack. “We can, as they say, take a page out of your friend the Doctor’s book and just… tweak a few things here and there. But I need you to trust me, Captain. I need you to trust me implicitly. This will only work with your help. I could have told you all this myself, but I brought you to Ianto so he could tell you.”

Taking in a deep, shuddering breath, Jack took her hand and pulled himself to his feet. “It doesn’t matter if I trust you or not. If there’s a way to save Ianto, _really_ save him before he becomes… _this_ , then… whatever it takes. I will give up _anything_ for him.”

“I was hoping you would say that,” Bec said, looking pleased. “You only have to do one simple deed, really, which should be easy for you… unless your skills from being a con man have grown rusty.”

“What’s that?” Jack asked, wondering if it could really be that simple.

Bec grinned in a way that implied they would probably be getting into a lot of trouble. “We need to steal something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, it took me so long to get this chapter out and finished to a point I was happy with it because I was worried I didn't write it well enough to have the emotional impact I wanted it to have. I hope I pulled it off at least decently! This chapter is so important because the whole Saga is now geared toward getting to that point that Lirithael-Ianto saw in the time wind. You know how it's supposedly going to end now! All that's left is to write out the long, very complicated journey on how they will get there, haha. 
> 
> Time winds are an actual thing from Doctor Who, in case you didn't know! I found out about them trawling through the Doctor Who wikipedia one day, haha. 
> 
> Also, I made an email just for writing so people can contact me there if they'd like! It's now listed on my profile page! I don't really have anyone I talk to about Torchwood and/or the writing process of this Saga, so feel free to send me something if you'd like! I have a discord username I can give out too though there. 
> 
> I will also not be offended at all if people want to poke me through there to see if I'm still working on the next chapter if a month has passed and I still don't have it up yet, haha, but I'm hoping with this emotional punch of a chapter out of the way that the next chapter will come more quickly! Time for a heist! XP


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well my dear readers, I have sad news for me but good news for you... I was laid off from one of my jobs last Thursday so I've gone from working 40 hours a week to 12 hours a week. Less money for me but! It means much more writing time! So with any luck, I'll be able to update a bit faster than... once every six months or so like I have been and hopefully more like every couple of weeks, eep.
> 
> Sorry it's taken me so long to update, but I'm still continuing to work on this saga, I promise! I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, but I just wanted to get an update out after it having been so long, so it is what it is, haha.

Jack peered out the front window of the small spaceship, studying the facility built around a large asteroid that was steadily growing closer as they approached. “Okay, so remind me why we’re doing this again?” he asked Bec, glancing over to where she sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Jack had acquired the ship with his own money, thanks to the large amount of wealth he now had due to investing thousands of years ago. Bec had said it was necessary to buy a spaceship and not just steal one to pull off her plan better, stating that using the vortex manipulator to travel around like they had been was too risky, so Jack had purchased a small yet still not too shabby one.

“We need a growth pod to create a new body for myself,” Bec explained, looking at the facility with a determined gaze. “I’ve downloaded enough information into my memory banks to be able to predict when time fissures will open up now in certain places. We slip the pod into a time fissure, and Ianto – being part of an Audimus now – will take it to where it needs to go in time and space. If I grow myself a body much sooner, then I can do what needs to be done in the past to cause what Ianto saw in the time wind come to be. My original plan was to make a body for him to inhabit now, but once he told me about the time wind… He asked me to wait for you,” she confessed.

 _I knew you’d find me. I knew, eventually, you’d hear the Song, and you’d understand,_ Ianto supplied with certainty, making Jack feel touched that even after all this time, Ianto’s faith in him hadn’t lessened.

Ianto’s voice had been a constant reassurance in Jack’s head these past few days. He’d offered to leave and just stay nearby in his – their? – Audimus form, knowing that it would kill Jack eventually and might start to cause him pain, but Jack had absolutely refused, not caring if hosting… Liriyan, he supposed they’d be called, would kill him because he’d just come back to life anyway. He didn’t care about any pain either because, as he’d told Liriyan, being parted from Ianto again would be much more painful for him to deal with. He didn’t want to bear it, so he’d pleaded with Liriyan to stay, and they’d agreed.

“So this thing has been one whole time loop?” Jack thought aloud, trying to get it straight.

_Yes. I knew the Song would be written because I had heard that it would be written in the future when I was in the past. Lirithael knew once they saved me that we would be merged together like this one day, so they stayed in the Rift, waiting until the day came where I could close it. They saved me again, so we could write the Song of Yanojo in the future, using Bec as a host._

“Okay, but… Yanojo and Jaharis? Really?” Jack couldn’t help but comment.

 _Well, I couldn’t make it too obvious,_ Ianto insisted wryly. _You weren’t supposed to know what was going to happen until after I had closed the Rift; you would have wanted to change things. It needed to happen the way it did, Jack. It was worth it, to help protect the Earth better… and to save you. I couldn’t just let you be lost forever in eternal oblivion._

 _Oh, Ianto…_ Jack thought back, not for the first time feeling a pang of sadness hit him as he thought about just how much Ianto had been suffering all this time. _And you being lost was better?_

 _You can save me. I wouldn’t have been able to save you,_ Ianto said simply. _I would have been dead for good all over again._

 _Not unless you had left like we had talked about,_ Jack pointed out.

 _Someone needed to close the Rift, and there was absolutely no way I was going to leave you there and walk out willingly,_ Ianto stated with the utmost conviction. _But it’s alright, Jack. There’s still a way to make that reality I saw in the time wind come true. You just need to trust Bec._

Jack let out a sigh, glancing sideways at the girl. _I will, for you. Seems like she’s only trusting me for you too, heh. Hey, just wondering, can Lirithael also hear me when we talk like this?_

 _Yes, Jack_ , a different voice answered.

 _Got it. Note to self, don’t say anything I’d be embarrassed to admit out loud… which isn’t much, but hey, you never know. Anyway, Lirithael, I just wanted to say… thank you for saving Ianto,_ he told them sincerely, dropping his previous joking tone. _And I’m sorry I took so long. We’re going to set it right, I swear._

 _I know you will,_ Lirithael stated without a hint of doubt. _I believe in you as much as Ianto does._

“After we dock, I’ll walk you through what to do through your vortex manipulator once you get inside,” Bec explained, cutting through the silent conversation the three of them were having in Jack’s head.

Jack was taken aback for a moment, staring at her incredulously. “You’re not even coming?”

A guilty expression flashed across Bec’s face. “I… can’t.”

“Okay, what haven’t you been telling me?” Jack demanded to know with a low growl. “I’ve seen the way you’ve been acting, always looking around like you’re worried about being found by someone.”

“Because I am,” Bec explained simply, staring down at her hands and not meeting Jack’s eyes. “This laboratory we’re going to, it’s run by the Cetrani Corporation. In this time, they are the best at artificially growing bodies. They’re very particular about their growth pods and will do anything to stop anyone else from getting their hands on the technology. 72 years ago, a Torchwood facility that was mostly archival and storing my original core gained access to one. It was a rough prototype that someone had tried to smuggle away before they were caught up in an… unfortunate situation they didn’t survive.”

“Unfortunate situation?” Jack questioned in a dry tone.

Bec shook her head before continuing on. “It doesn’t matter now. The remains of their ship were picked up by Torchwood after they were found floating in space. I don’t think the Cetrani Corporation even knew the pod had been stolen yet. My core was attached to the technological system, so once the pod was taken back to the facility and the people there pieced together what it was, I commandeered it to grow myself a body, erasing any record of it so it wouldn’t be taken away from Torchwood. Technically, I’m stolen goods, and if the Cetrani ever found that out, they would terminate this body, and it would take me a few years to grow another one, and I can’t guarantee that the growth pod wouldn’t be confiscated or destroyed in that amount of time. Plus, I don’t think they would think too highly of a child trying to rent one of their pods,” she added wryly.

Jack let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing his temples. “Why did you stop yourself from growing if being a child was going to be a problem?”

“Because most of the time, it isn’t. Most people don’t think ‘That girl is actually an organic computer who has the ability to bring down our whole entire technological system if she wanted to’ when they see a human child. They see someone innocent and in need of protecting. They don’t see someone suspicious,” Bec explained.

“Okay, fair point,” Jack conceded. “But we’re going to be stealing a pod, right? They’re not going to just come after us and take the pod back, are they?”

“They shouldn’t if we move fast enough,” Bec said with confidence. “Once we get the pod into the time vortex, they won’t be able to prevent Ianto from taking it back to the past, and the Cetrani Corporation won’t exist for at least another thousand years once we get it back to the 21st century.”

“Either way, they’re going to end up chasing us once they find out we stole from them, right?” Jack grumped. “Really wish you would have brought that up earlier.”

“Would it have changed your mind?” Bec asked, already knowing the answer.

“Hell no,” Jack said without any hesitation, as anticipated. “I said I’d do anything to get Ianto back, and I will.”

 _Thank you, Jack_ , Ianto said softly. _I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do, but I’ll help in any way that I can._

 _You’ve been through enough, Ianto_ , Jack soothed. _It’s my turn now._

Ianto made a dissatisfied hum, and Jack got the feeling he wouldn’t just sit idly back even if requested. It made him feel better, though, because the Ianto he had known was exactly like that. Even if Ianto was different, he wasn’t gone completely.

“Alright,” Jack said, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as a way to mentally prepare himself. “Let’s do this. Let’s get Ianto back.”

****************************************************************************************************

Opening the door and waving his arm for Jack to proceed first, the guide gave Jack a large grin that gave no doubt the man was expecting to receive a ridiculous amount of money in a short amount of time from him. “Right this way, Mr. Miller,” the guide said cheerfully to Jack, or Cole Miller as he was being known right now, chosen after a few composers from Earth’s past Jack had enjoyed.

Jack gave the guide his most charming smile and threw in a wink for good measure as he stepped through the door of the reception area and into what looked like the start of the laboratory area. “Thank you.”

Getting in had been fairly simple. He’d landed, flashed a little techstick that contained enough money to buy his own personal moon, and said he wanted to check out what the Cetrani Corporation could offer. The security sensors had picked up on Bec’s heat signature inside the ship, and the people who had greeted him questioned him about it, but Jack had waved any concern away by assuring them it was just his assistant who he’d wanted to stay behind so they wouldn’t get in the way. Once the people had verified that the money he had on the techstick was real and had him scanned for any weapons or obvious thieving devices, any other concerns had vanished, and they’d been tripping over themselves to accommodate his every wish since.

“So you wish to make an investment in case of any sudden demise?” the guide questioned as he led Jack along, two guards with pulse guns attached to their hips following silently after them.

“That’s the plan,” Jack confirmed. “I run a cargo transport business,” he lied breezily. “You know how dangerous it can get sometimes, pirates attacking and trying to steal your property, flying through war zones, that sort of thing,” he said with a flippant wave of his hand.

“Of course, of course,” the guide agreed with ease, nodding quickly. “We were very glad to see that you’ve had no problems so far with your business.” 

Jack inwardly scoffed at that, knowing they’d done a full background check on him and found the cookie-cutter background Bec had whipped up for him. He knew full well that they didn’t care about his fake business being successful, they just didn’t want to get caught up with someone the law was after to save their own skins.

“So!” Jack exclaimed, clapping his hands together and rubbing them to give off the impression of eagerness as they walked along. “What can you show me? Can I see how these things work?” So far, they’d only passed by sealed bay doors, and the hallway they were heading down appeared to be full of them with more hallways branching off of it, making it look like a straight-lined grid system if one was looking at it from the top down.

“Of course, of course,” the guide assured him. “These pods have already been purchased by other buyers, so we need to go just a bit further in order to show you an empty one.”

“An empty one? How am I supposed to see how good these things work if I can’t see some actual merchandise?” Jack questioned incredulously, abruptly making a right turn into the second branching off hallway they came across. Bec had told him earlier to go to the third pod on right side of the second right hallway, for some reason. When he’d asked why, she’d only just cryptically replied to get to that one if he could, but not to worry about it if it would attract too much attention doing so. It was already one in use, so it wasn’t one they would need for Ianto.

“Mr. Miller, please!” the guide said a bit frantically as he scrambled after Jack. “Customer confidentiality dictates that - ” he started to explain, but Jack cut him off.

“I don’t want to know anything about the customer, I just want to see if these things actually work,” he insisted, going to the third bay door on the right and knocking on it. “How about this one? There’s no harm in taking a peek, is there?” he said with that same ‘you can absolutely trust me’ charming smile. “I’m not sure I’m willing to invest in something that would cost me quite a bit just by taking someone’s word for it.”

The guide looked torn for a moment, but the threat of the loss of money did the trick. “A-alright… Just a peek, and I must insist you keep your distance from the pod at all times.”

“Easily done,” Jack said, holding his hands up in a peaceful gesture. 

Punching in a code into the access panel by the door, the guide waited until the bay door went up before he, Jack, and the two guards stepped inside.

There was indeed a pod in the center of the room that had all sorts of wires of various sizes attached to it. A man’s face that looked like it was sleeping peered out from behind the blue-tinted window in the front of the pod.

Something about the man seemed recognizable, some long distant memory stirring in Jack’s mind. Where had he…?

It was Ianto who gave him the answer.

 _Sylas…_ Ianto said in surprise. _It’s… It’s Sylas._

Jack’s eyes widened in shock. Of course Ianto would remember Sylas. The man had tortured him and nearly killed him. He’d been from the future. He’d been…

 _An enhanced human,_ Ianto remembered. _He said he was an enhanced human._

Jack tried his best not to grit his teeth in anger, doing his best not to show any conflicting emotion on his face as he clenched his hands tight enough to dig his fingernails into his palms. This bastard had hurt Ianto so much…

“Is this a copy of someone?” Jack asked, staring straight ahead at Sylas’s face and wishing the man was awake so he could strangle him to death.

The guide had been standing silently by his side, watching him with nervous anticipation to see how he would react upon seeing an actual pod for the first time, but he eagerly spoke up now. “Yes, indeed. I can’t tell you who the original benefactor was, but this merchandise is a copy of him with more enhancements. The original benefactor was human, you see, but with our technology, we can do things like create a body that heals faster or ages slower or enhances the brain to give someone psychic abilities. There are many possibilities. We haven’t quite gotten the technology down to completely transfer someone’s consciousness into the copy, but we have the ability to put memory imprints into them and make them almost like the original. It’s only a matter of time before we’re able to completely transfer a consciousness into an upgraded body.”

So that’s why Bec had been talking about making a body for Ianto but not being able to make him truly be Ianto, Jack pieced together.

Then he pieced something else together, and another surge of anger ran through him, not at Sylas, but at Bec this time. She’d done this. She’d intentionally led him to Sylas as some sort of sick test, he was sure of it. Whether this actually was Sylas or just a look-alike didn’t matter, although he had a feeling this actually was the man who would one day go back into the past and cause so much harm to someone he loved. Bec had intentionally set this up to test him, to see if he would let anger and the urge for revenge get the better of him, to see if he would stop Sylas here and now before he had the chance to hurt Ianto or… walk away and let what had happened happen. To do nothing and let Ianto get tortured.

But if he did stop Sylas here and now, then there was the high chance the Audimus wouldn’t flee to Ianto’s time to escape him. Lirithael wouldn’t be there to save Ianto when the Rift was forced closed. Ianto would be dead forever.

To save him, Jack had to let Ianto be hurt. The thought made him feel nauseated, but he forced on a smile as he tried not to shake from the inward fury he felt, letting out a deep breath and unclenching his hands so he could hold one out to the guide. “Okay, I’m sold.”

The guide gleefully shook his hand and directed him to leave the room where they would continue on to an empty bay that Jack could have for his own use.

Ianto, who had been carefully silent the whole time Jack had been letting his emotions run through him, finally spoke up, quiet but grateful. _Thank you, Jack._

Jack took a moment to close his eyes and let out another breath to steady himself as they walked along, feeling some of his anger ebb away. He was still furious at Bec for springing this on him, but Ianto’s gratitude reminded him of what this was all about – getting Ianto back to the way he’d been.

He was grateful for the bit of travel it took to get to a bay with an empty pod because it gave Jack a chance to reign his emotions in a bit better to be able to pull off what came next – the tricky part.

Everything had to play out just right in order for the part of the plan where they actually stole the pod to be successful, and all they would have would be a few minutes.

Once they got to the bay door, Jack pretended to watch the guide type the code into the access panel with curiosity, reaching out and running his palm over it once the door had been opened… discreetly placing a small chip Bec had given him on the panel that would remotely allow her to get into the controls. 

The guide gave Jack a sympathetic smile, only catching that he had ran his hand over the panel. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to open the door with just the access code,” he apologized, Jack already knowing that the access panels also read the fingerprints of the employees as an extra security measure… one that Bec could bypass once she got into the system.

“That’s good,” Jack said approvingly. “You don’t want to make these things too easy to steal.”

“I assure you, Mr. Miller, our security measures are of the utmost importance to us,” the guide reassured. 

“Hey, listen,” Jack said in a low, flirty tone as he stepped closer to the guide, jerking his thumb at the guards. “I’d really… _really_ … like to show my appreciate to you for being such a wonderful guide so far… You’ve been so… _thorough_ in your explanations, I’d only like to repay the favor just as thoroughly… Can we have these guys stand _outside_ the door…? So it can be just, you know… me and you…? I mean, I’m not above them joining in, but…”

“O-oh,” the guide stammered, his cheeks turning red as he grew flustered. “I, ah… I appreciate the praise, Mr. Miller, but it’s… That would… That would very much be against company policy!”

Jack silently hoped he had given enough time for Bec to get into the system, giving a shrug and reaching out to take the guide’s face between his hands. “Well, at least let me do this.” Before the guide could protest, he pulled the man forward and kissed him solidly, feeling the man flail a little but not push him away as Jack plundered his mouth.

Then Jack shoved him so that he stumbled backwards, the guide looking dazed and embarrassed as he fell against the opposite wall.

Jack waved a hand, gave a little grin, and stepped backward into the room, really hoping that Bec was ready to go.

Thankfully, the moment he’d stepped into the room, the bay door came down. The guards shouted in surprise and tried to lunge forward before it could close Jack in, but they weren’t fast enough.

Bec had said that each room had a camera, so Jack quickly looked in the corners until he spotted one, giving it a thumbs up because he was sure Bec would be watching it if she had control of the doors now.

Getting to work fast, Jack reached into his pockets and pulled out four electronic markers that were harmless on their own, putting one in each corner of the back wall. He could hear the guide and the guards shouting and banging on the other side of the door, no doubt trying to get in, but with Bec controlling the access panel, they were unsuccessful, and they didn’t have enough firepower to blast it open with their small guns.

Once the markers were in place, he gave another thumbs up to the camera and silently urged Bec to hurry up as fast as she could, not knowing how long it would be before they were able to break the door down.

 _Almost there, Ianto_ , he said to the other in an attempt to soothe his own nerves. _Bec just has to lock on to the markers and use that laser drill attachment we got to open the side of this wall, then the pod is ours. We can get you back._

 _Will you be alright, Jack?_ Ianto asked in concern. _I’ll have to leave you to take the pod back through a time fissure…_

 _I…_ Jack trailed off, not able to answer honestly right away. He lifted a hand up to clutch at his chest, as if he might be able to keep Ianto with him somehow. _If it’ll save you sooner so you don’t have to go through the hell of spending all this time trapped away… I can deal with it._

 _You know what’s going to happen when Bec cuts through the wall,_ Ianto said sympathetically.

Jack let out a dry, humorless laugh. _Yeah. Not the first time, won’t be the last._

 _But this time you won’t have to be alone, Jack,_ Ianto soothed. _I’m here. I can stay until you wake up if you need me to._

Jack closed his eyes and took in another deep, steadying breath. He so badly wanted Ianto to stay with him… but he knew in order to save him in the past, he had to let him go now in the future. _No… You take the pod and get through a time fissure as soon as you can, even if I’m not back yet. We can’t take the risk of them catching us. If they do, this will have been all for nothing._

 _We’ve come this far. I’m sure it’ll work,_ Ianto said encouragingly.

 _It’d better. God, Ianto… I still can’t get over how all this time, you’ve been…_ he trailed off, feeling his throat tightening up with emotion.

His vortex manipulator beeped, and Jack lifted it up to see a message from Bec simply saying ‘Ready’.

There were bright lights in the corners of the wall as she started to drill through with the laser. Jack sucked in a deep breath, but he held onto it this time, wanting to stay conscious for as long as possible, to be with Ianto just a little bit longer.

 _I love you, Jack. I’m here,_ Ianto reassured him.

 _I love you too,_ Jack replied, hoping with all he had that it wouldn’t be the last time he had the chance to say that to Ianto, watching as the laser lines got longer and longer until they connected.

The wall was peeled away, and he was pulled out, along with the contents of the room, into open space. 

It didn’t take too long before he died, but the lullaby of Ianto murmuring over and over again _I’m here_ helped make this death easier than all the ones he had had over the last few thousand years.

****************************************************************************************************

When Jack woke up with a sharp gasp for breath, his hand flew to his chest as a cold emptiness filled him, and he knew that Ianto was gone. He was sitting in one of the front seats of the spaceship, and he had a fleeting moment of wondering how he had gotten there but pushed that aside to immediately turn to Bec and demand, “Did it work?”

Bec gave a single nod, even though she still looked a little strained. “The plan to steal the pod did. Ianto took over your body while you were dead and used it to secure the pod and get it on board, then he made sure you’d be settled comfortably when you came back before he left you. We were able to make it to the nearest time fissure and send him back through it. You’ve been out for awhile. Hosting an Audimus for a few days must have taken a physical toll on you.”

“So that’s it? It’s done? Why doesn’t it feel like anything’s change?” Jack questioned, not liking the way she looked strained. “And what the _hell_ is up with sending me directly to the room Sylas was in?!”

“I wanted to test your resolve,” Bec said simply. “To see what lengths you would go to to save him. If you’d be able to set aside other emotions like the need for revenge and prioritize him.”

“I can’t believe you’re still questioning that!” Jack snapped angrily. “What else do I have to do to prove I’d do anything to get him back?!”

When Bec didn’t say anything in response, Jack let out a groan and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, what. What aren’t you telling me now? I’m getting really sick of you hiding things from me!”

“The Cetrani Corporation is still after us. They won’t be able to get the pod now, but they can still catch _us_ ,” Bec explained, staring straight ahead through the front window of the ship like she was keeping an eye out for any danger. “There’s two more final things I need you to do in order to make this work.”

“And what are those?” Jack asked in frustration. 

“I need you to create a message I can give to your past self to get him to trust me. And… I need you to give up your most prized possession. I need your vortex manipulator,” she said, finally turning to look him in the eyes to show how serious she was.

“Why would I give a message to my past self telling me to trust you when I don’t really trust you right now after that little surprise you pulled?” Jack said shortly. “And you want me to give up my vortex manipulator _forever_ without knowing why? No way.”

“I need to do those things in order for what Ianto saw in the time wind to come to pass,” she stated calmly. “Captain…” Her tone actually took on an almost pleading tone, surprising Jack a little as her eyes – Ianto’s eyes – stared into his. “I _need_ you to do these last two things in order to save him, to _truly_ save him. No more tricks. No more surprises. These are the last two things I need. I swear on his life. You _must_ trust me, right _now_. Ianto did. Isn’t that enough?”

Jack glared back at her in anger, feeling his face twitching from the effort of trying to keep calm. “… _Fine_ ,” he finally said shortly. “But I want a minute, _alone_ , to make my message. You don’t get to hear it.”

Bec nodded, and Jack wondered if it was a trick of the light to see an expression of relief on her since she’d seemed nothing but stoic for almost all of the time that he’d known her. “I understand. I’ll keep monitoring for any Cetrani Corporation ships.”

Jack just stood up without another word and walked off deeper into the back of the ship where he could record his message in private…. unless Bec was listening in through the ship somehow anyway. He wouldn’t be surprised at this point, he thought wryly to himself, still not happy with what she’d done. But for Ianto… He could push through it for Ianto. He still hadn’t been lying when he said he’d do anything and give up anything to save him.

He just really could have done without all the surprises and deception.

It took him only about 10 minutes before he came back and handed Bec a device that had a recorded message on it. He let out a sigh, having cooled off a little bit so he could talk in a less angry tone now. “There’s your message. If past me won’t let you get close enough to make him listen to it, just… tell him this: Javic Piotr Thane. He’ll - _I’ll_ listen once I hear that.”

Bec simply nodded, taking the device and pocketing it.

“And…” Jack looked down at his vortex manipulator that he’d worn on his wrist for so long, staring at it for a moment, before he unstrapped it and tugged it off. “… For Ianto,” he said firmly as he placed it in her hand.

Bec stared at the vortex manipulator for a long moment herself, and when she looked up at him, Jack was startled to see she had actual tears in her eyes. “Thank you, Captain. … Jack. I owe you. In return, I’ll do a favor for you.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you address me by my first name,” Jack noted in surprise. 

“Giving this to me… You don’t know what this means. I have a plan to… to make things right,” she fumbled to explain.

“You’re not going to mess things up too much, right?” Jack pushed, although he had a bit of an awkward teasing tone to his voice in an effort to lighten the air a bit.

“No. I swear, I’m only going to… tweak things a little. No big changes. Just enough,” Bec promised. She took a deep breath and got to her feet, strapping the vortex manipulator around her wrist. “If this works like how I’m hoping it will… you’ll have a moment of being disorientated before things start adjusting themselves in your head due to your memories being rewritten. You may or may not remember what’s happened.”

“I think I’d honestly be okay with not remembering. The last few thousand years haven’t exactly been the best time of my life,” Jack admitted with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll make sure that changes,” Bec vowed. “I will do everything in my power to make sure Ianto Jones has a long and happy life, and I know that includes having you with him. Thank you, Captain… for trusting me for his sake.”

“Well, get going already and make it happen,” Jack pressed with a light smile. “I’m trusting I’m not going to regret giving that thing to you,” he said with a nod towards the vortex manipulator.

“You won’t. Goodbye… Jack.” Bec gave him a nod of respect and a small smile in return before she entered coordinates into the vortex manipulator, pressed a button… and disappeared.

For a moment, Jack was overcome with the feeling of once again being completely and utterly alone, even more naked without his most prized possession on his wrist. A wave of dizziness swept through him, and he leaned forward to cover his face with his hands, feeling tears stinging at his eyes.

But the dizziness didn’t pass and a headache began to grow rapidly until he was gripping his head and hissing loudly in pain as memories… new memories of things that hadn’t happened before but did started to assault him. 

Better memories. Happier memories. Memories that had him choking out a soft, incredulous laugh of pure of joy and made tears of utter relief track down his cheeks.

And then a voice called out behind him, no longer in just his head, although why he would hear the voice in his head he had no idea, their bond didn’t work like that – 

“Jack?”

Jolting to his feet, Jack spun around and stared at the person in front of him, gaping in shock and awe but not understanding why he was so surprised, they’d been together for all this time, always together, why did he think they hadn’t been together…?

“Jack…?” Ianto asked in concern as he moved towards him quickly, reaching out to take Jack’s face in his own _solid, real_ hands and thumb at his tears. “Jack, what’s wrong? You’re crying…”

Jack threw his arms around Ianto and crushed him tightly to him, letting out a sobbing laugh of absolute delight. “You’re here. _You’re here_.”

“Of course I’m here,” Ianto said in confusion, even as he sounded a little out of breath from how tightly Jack was hugging him, rubbing his hands over Jack’s back in an attempt to soothe him. “I thought I felt some sort of time distortion just a moment ago, so I came to ask if you’d noticed anything…”

“Oh, right, you’re sensitive to that kind of thing now…” Jack remembered, wondering why he’d forgotten that. Gripping onto Ianto’s shoulders because he was reluctant to let him go, he stepped back to look him up and down. “I… I don’t know. I just… got the strongest feeling that I… that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. A _really_ long time. But that doesn’t make sense because we’ve been together all this time, haven’t we…?”

Ianto made a soothing, shushing noise, drawing him back in for a secure hug. “You’re upset. Let’s wonder about it later. Whatever happened, I’m here now. Everything’s alright.”

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, letting out a shaky exhale as he hugged Ianto back, relishing in the feeling of being able to simply hold him in his arms. “Yeah.” Drawing back enough he could kiss him, Jack pressed their mouths together in a passionate heat, one that made Ianto let out a soft moan in response as he eagerly reciprocated. Once they parted for breath, panting a little, Jack let out a happy laugh. “God, it feels like I haven’t done that in forever…” he marveled.

“Well…” Ianto trailed off, tone turning playful as he raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. “If you need a reminder of that or… any other thing, I’m happy to oblige… _sir_ ,” he said with a growing smirk.

Jack mirrored that smirk with his own wide grin. “Oh, I think I could do with a few reminders… Bedroom?”

“Why waste time going all the way to the bedroom when we have a perfectly good seat right here?” Ianto noted before he reached out to spin one of the ship’s chairs around and push Jack down into sitting in it.

Even if Jack had wanted to say anything in response, Ianto effectively shut him up by climbing into his lap before proceeding to kiss him senseless.

Jack was absolutely okay with that, thanking whoever it was in the universe that was responsible for Ianto Jones being alive, safe, happy, and together here with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there it is! Ianto's back! But how?! That's what the rest of the saga is going to explain, bahaha. 
> 
> A big reason why this chapter was a bit difficult for me to write was because I find it much easier to write Jack with his team versus being on his own. There will be one more chapter to wrap this story up before moving on to the next story in the saga, Stone To Steel, but it'll be about Bec going back to Torchwood TV series canon time, so I'm excited to get back to writing about the team again! I've missed writing about those guys.
> 
> There's also some very important little tidbits of information in this chapter that foreshadow things to come, so I'm curious if anyone will be able to figure out what's going to happen before it gets revealed!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has continued to stick around and keep reading this series even with my super slow updates. I will do my very best not to be so slow again now that I have much more time to write!


End file.
